Huw Irranca-Davies MP, Labour’s Shadow Food and Farming Minister, responding to the publication of Defra’s report on rural productivity, said:

“This report is based on plans that have yet to be delivered. Having failed the countryside on broadband and infrastructure investment over the last four and a half years the Tories are promising jam tomorrow. 

“The cost-of-living crisis is the real problem holding back rural Britain. Under this Tory-led Government it costs £2800 more a year to live in the countryside than it does in a city.

"Only by tackling the cost-of-living crisis can we build a rural economy that works for ordinary people instead of just a privileged few. That is why the next Labour government will raise the minimum wage, ban exploitative zero hour contracts and abolish the bedroom tax.”